As hawkish politicians scramble to adjust to a bewildering new mood of reform in Congress, their rage is focused on the source of the information that led the Senate and House of Representatives to vote overwhelmingly to rein in the National Security Agency via the USA Freedom Act, which was signed into law on Tuesday.

Unfortunately, their statements reveal that several of his most prominent critics cannot remember what the NSA whistleblower is actually called.

"It was not a public program until Eric Snowden – a traitor to the United States – published a lot of information about what the intelligence community does," fumed the chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, Richard Burr.

"This was one small piece and Eric Snowden put the lives of Americans and foreigners at risk," added the North Carolina Republican, shortly before 67 of his colleagues voted to ban a programme that most claim they were not aware of.